


Reactions

by Quiet_Shadow



Series: Alternating [2]
Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen, Genderbending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 09:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1184370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quiet_Shadow/pseuds/Quiet_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of ‘Discovery’, Ryo has to announce her fellow Troopers she has been unmasked…</p>
            </blockquote>





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“Shuten saw me. Naked.”

Ryo doesn’t shy away from the truth. Not when it’s so important. But the others look at him, puzzled, and Ryo can only elaborate a bit more, refusing to meet their gaze. “Naked… in my birth form.”

That makes them react. Asides of Touma, who already knew and is standing stiffly by her side, the others exchange grim or shocked looks. Shin actually gasps and put his hands in front of his mouth.

“Oh Kami-sama, Ryo, did he…?”

“He didn’t hurt me,” quickly answer the black-haired youth, knowing what Shin fears. Touma snorts and looks at him with piercing eyes. Ryo sighs and rectify himself obediently. “He… felt me up.” The other Troopers’ eyes narrow at this admission, and there is a silent promise between them to make the Oni Masho pay dearly for this transgression.

Ryo isn’t finished. “I think he got a nasty shock when he realized exactly what he was holding in his hand. He didn’t seem to know what to do about it. But I think I never been gladder to see you, Touma,” he added for his blue-haired friend’s benefit.

Touma can only nod. “I only regret I didn’t manage to actually change him into a porcupine.”

Seiji is frowning, arms crossed over his chest. “You shouldn’t have gone bathing alone. That was stupid.” His voice is rather cold, though there’s still some worry in his eyes.

Ryo sighs. “Yes, yes, I know. It was a bad idea on my part, but I wanted to… I just couldn’t stay a man for much longer, you know? I… I needed to relax a bit, and it was just a bath.”

The look on Seiji’s face clearly means ‘no’. No, he doesn’t understand the need to be his other self for just a while. But Seiji has no problem being a boy all the time, not like some of them. Not like Ryo, who’s more used to being a girl than a boy… at least, whenever her father wasn’t at home.

“One of us could have come with you, you know,” Shuu points out. “Safety in numbers, right?”

Ryo shrugs. “I wasn’t sure one of you would accept, and… I needed the time alone to think. It’s… not easy being what I am,” he finishes lamely.

“You tell us,” murmurs Touma. “You really think we can’t understand how it feels?”

Ryo gives him a look. “Oh, come on. You know what I mean.” And they understand, kinda. Sure, they all share the same… _condition_. But they don’t all have the same background. They don’t all have the same life. They don’t all have to live with insane expectations from their families.

All of them had had to… adjust themselves, some better than others. And the group they form is more ‘manly’ than ‘girly’, in a way. Even if, according to Touma’s theory, they should all be considered women, if only because they wouldn’t shift gender if they had truly been men from birth.

Ryo continues speaking. “I wasn’t about to ask a ‘man’ to come with me; it wouldn’t have been correct. And you were very clear about what you thought of the situation.” Oh, yeah, there had been quite the argument at the time, when they all started to talk at once about what was proper or safe or not.

“Damnit Ryo, I would have come,” Shuu shakes his head and banishes his whole armor, standing in front of them all in a pair of dark pants and a simple T-shirt. Arms crossed over his chest, he looks at Ryo in the eyes.

And then Shuu’s face… shifts. There is no other way to describe it. Suddenly, his cheeks and nose are thinner, his eyes a bit larger, his hairs curlier, and perhaps a tad longer. The rest of his body isn’t exempt from the sudden transformation. It’s like he lost several pounds in a second. He might have shrunk, but it’s hard to see. On the spot, his arms become thinner, though still well muscled, his waist shrinks, his hips widen a bit, his legs seems to get a bit longer.

It only takes a minute for all of this to happen. It’s the same person, to be sure, but it’s also someone different. Someone more… feminine, if the sudden bulge under her shirt is to be believed. Deftly, Shuu lifts her pants and fasten her belt tighter.

Yes, **her** pants. It’s not a boy anymore who stands before them, but a young girl. A rather stocky young girl, with muscles earned from intense training in combat, sports and helping around in her parent’s restaurant by doing heavy lifting.

And it’s still Kongo no Shuu. You just have to look at her eyes to know. Her hands on her hips, she looks straight at her leader. “I wouldn’t have had any problem going with you. I could have been your spotter in case of trouble. And honestly, I wouldn’t have been bothered by seeing you ‘change’ without your clothes on. Nor would I have been bothered that much by taking a bath with you.”

Ryo tries to answer, but is cut out when Seiji sighs. “You know it dangerous to do that in the open, where anyone can see.”

Shuu dismisses the concern with a gesture. “Aside of Byakuen, Jun and Nasutei, there’s nobody around for miles… well, asides from the odd Youja stalker. And it’s not like they’re actually stalking us 24/24, right?”

Seiji snorts. “You hope.”

Shin shakes his head. “Please, don’t start… We already went over it, Seiji,” he addresses the blonde Trooper. “We just… don’t all have your ease with staying in a man’s body for days. We all need to… let go and be ourselves sometimes,” he finishes lamely, passing a hand through his hairs. Not that Shin fully considers himself a girl, of course, but he also knows he’s not exactly a man either, and he’s always trying to find a just middle between the two.

“Being a man is being myself,” Seiji growls out, and his eyes, both visible for once, dare anyone from questioning the statement.

As it is, Touma shakes his head, not impressed by the small outburst. “I’d rather think it’s what your family would want you to be, Seiji. It doesn’t stop you from having been born with a girl’s genitalia. Just like us.”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Seiji snaps and take a few steps away. His rage is almost palpable.

It’s always a dangerous subject, talking about Seiji’s feelings over the whole ‘genderbending’ matter. They only ever saw her as a girl twice since they know him… know her. Seiji acts like a man, thinks like a man, talks like a man. So just hinting about his ‘secret’ womanhood is asking for troubles.

Ryo sighs with deject. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault if …”

Touma cuts in. “No it’s not. The crisis at end is not a new one, it just something that kept brewing and that we will have to face eventually, no matter out personal feelings. But it isn’t YOUR fault. If anything, it’s Fate’s twisted sense of irony,” he says bitterly.

Each one of the Troopers smile grimly at the reminder. Yeah. Fate royally screwed them over when they were born not quite what the yoroi needed as bearers. Touma liked to hypotethise the yoroi had always meant to go to them, that they had been the designated bearers from the very beginning. But genetic had gotten in the way, and instead of five baby boys, they had ended being born as five baby girls. Except, the armors mustn’t have been thought of with feminine bearers in mind. And, instead of finding some other poor bastards to take up arms against the Youja and their ilk, Fate took measures to rectify the problem. Measures like, you know, changing them all into freaks from their earliest memories.

“It’s still my fault Shuten Douji knows,” Ryo insists. His hands come to cover his chest -- HIS, because right now, it’s a man chest, without the breasts who captivated the Oni Masho -- as in protection over the remembrance. Shuten didn’t hurt him, per se. He didn’t have the time to do anything, really. The squeezing hadn’t been comfortable, but it didn’t leave any bruise, not like the hold he had had on Ryo’s wrists; this had left bruises. Shin gently put a hand over his shoulder in silent comfort.

Once again, Touma shakes his head. “He doesn’t know anything.”

“But…” Ryo tries.

“He knows you’re a girl, nothing more. Which is a problem, I agree. Because, if he tells the other three and his Master, we might end up with a different kind of assault and mental torture on our hands…” And they all shudder, thinking about WHAT Arago would do with such information. They’re not naïve. They know what’s going on in a guy’s head when women are concerned. “But he doesn’t know about the shape shifting for now, which might be an asset. And he doesn’t know about us. We’ll just have to be… more careful.”

Seiji nods. “Ryo… I think you shouldn’t try to be a girl anymore for the next few days… or weeks. You too, Shuu.”

Their leader sighs, but doesn’t protest. Shuu, however, doesn’t look happy the slightest. Touma bite his lips. “No, Seiji. I think Ryo can stay a girl indefinitely. The secret is out about him… or her,” he amends. “Though I do agree, let’s not tempt fate anymore with Shuu. Back to boy,” he orders, jabbing a finger at the dark haired Chinese girl. Shuu mocks salute before closing his eyes and letting herself… himself changes back.

“Not that I would mind staying a girl longer, but… it will not be very comfortable with the armor on,” Ryo points out.

Touma grimaced. “True, they haven’t been designated with a woman’s chest in mind. Think we could have a talk with Kaosu about this oversight next time we manage to get a glimpse of him?”

Ryo sighed. “Let’s wait and see before we take a decision, yes?”

“About Shuten… Perhaps there is a way to make it sounds like he had a hallucination,” tries Shin, full of good will.

“Wouldn’t work. He got a very good look at me, and felt me up,” grouses Ryo. “And Touma all but confirmed it. He will never think it was anything but the truth.”

Touma grimaced. “Yeah, not my smartest moment, I admit, but I was too busy getting him away from you to care. And really, he had gotten a really good look at you, so there was no point denying you weren’t a girl in body at that point.”

“What do you think he’ll do with the information? He can’t get more obsessed with Ryo anyway, right?” asked Shuu after a few seconds of silence.

“I’m… not so sure,” answered Touma with a faint voice. Because yeah, Shuten is kind of obsessed with Ryo, they all can see it. Of course, he’s obsessed by beating and besting Rekka, he wants to kill him. Sexual abuses and psychological tortures aren’t his things… or at least, they all hope it isn’t.

The five Troopers exchanged wary looks. Whatever the future might hold, they would have to be extra careful. All of them.

**End... for now**


End file.
